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Wind turbines are kind of a waste of money for most households, mainly because the necessary wind speeds are not found in 99% of the country (most likely where you live), most of the wind speeds are on the coastline. Sure you can have "some" wind but not the necessary amount to make any appreciable dent to your electrical power usage albeit there will be people where the wind pattern is good for them on certain years and on other years it won't be so good. Hydropower turbines are more consistent and last from day to night instead of certain times of day for wind power (and even then for only short periods of time)... If you can I would put wind power as the "last" alternative energy... most homes would require several wind turbines to be useful and by that time, it just isn't worth it anymore... maybe one day when they greatly improve the technology a bit to generate energy the other 95% of the time when the wind isn't really blowing as much, it may be more useful then but not really right now...
Wind turbines are kind of a waste of money for most households, mainly because the necessary wind speeds are not found in 99% of the country (most likely where you live), most of the wind speeds are on the coastline. Sure you can have "some" wind but not the necessary amount to make any appreciable dent to your electrical power usage albeit there will be people where the wind pattern is good for them on certain years and on other years it won't be so good. Hydropower turbines are more consistent and last from day to night instead of certain times of day for wind power (and even then for only short periods of time)... If you can I would put wind power as the "last" alternative energy... most homes would require several wind turbines to be useful and by that time, it just isn't worth it anymore... maybe one day when they greatly improve the technology a bit to generate energy the other 95% of the time when the wind isn't really blowing as much, it may be more useful then but not really right now...
I have been trying to say this about wind turbines for a while. The coast and the mid-west are GREAT places for them, there is the constant 10mph winds needed for residential units. The rule of thumb for placing these systems for install is 10mph wind (constant) 30' above any existing structure within 300'. If any of these do not match they will not work well.
in Colorado hydro power would NOT be a good option, there just is not enough running water to produce power. Solar is GREAT here along with wind (in the eastern planes of Colorado) we have near 360 days of sunshine, which makes solar a HUGE benefit in these areas. It is all in the area you live in which alternative is going to be more effective. I for one would not think to look for solar in Seattle, they have too few sunny days to make it worth the investment, but being a coastal town, wind and hydro might be the better choice.
Wind turbines are kind of a waste of money for most households, mainly because the necessary wind speeds are not found in 99% of the country (most likely where you live), most of the wind speeds are on the coastline. Sure you can have "some" wind but not the necessary amount to make any appreciable dent to your electrical power usage albeit there will be people where the wind pattern is good for them on certain years and on other years it won't be so good. Hydropower turbines are more consistent and last from day to night instead of certain times of day for wind power (and even then for only short periods of time)... If you can I would put wind power as the "last" alternative energy... most homes would require several wind turbines to be useful and by that time, it just isn't worth it anymore... maybe one day when they greatly improve the technology a bit to generate energy the other 95% of the time when the wind isn't really blowing as much, it may be more useful then but not really right now...
In a way, it's serendipitous that there are normally higher wind speeds at the coasts... because that's where the majority of the populatin lives and where it would make the most impact as an alternate energy source. The interior of the country could use the midwest winds, solar and hydro (like the Hoover Dam if it wasn't powering all the gawdy lights of Vegas).
Scroll down to the "2007 Year End Wind Capacity (MW)" Graphic.
The energy is not continuous... like brownouts... would you like a source of energy that constantly does brownouts? Its incredibly unreliable which means any hour of day of any month of the year may or may not produce enough energy. Sure the "total" sounds "good" but total does not mean continuous... Most of the wind energy is supplemented by other coal/nuclear plants because it is unreliable... which means most of them are useless... like I said before, until wind energy can generate energy without a constant gust of wind, it is not a "great" investment... there is no home that can power itself solely by wind energy... there ARE homes that are powered entirely by solar energy... which path of investment would you rather we go with?
The energy is not continuous... like brownouts... would you like a source of energy that constantly does brownouts? Its incredibly unreliable which means any hour of day of any month of the year may or may not produce enough energy. Sure the "total" sounds "good" but total does not mean continuous... Most of the wind energy is supplemented by other coal/nuclear plants because it is unreliable... which means most of them are useless... like I said before, until wind energy can generate energy without a constant gust of wind, it is not a "great" investment... there is no home that can power itself solely by wind energy... there ARE homes that are powered entirely by solar energy... which path of investment would you rather we go with?
Your logic is entirely backwards.
Wind isn't supplemented by other forms of generation, other forms are supplemented by wind.
This is true because the winds are not constant (although around here there are those who would argue with that!) and are used as a supplement, as they should be. Why you would ever expect them to be a single source for energy I will never understand.
As for saying they are useless, well that is a baseless statement. The "use" of wind power here has lessened the need for more power plants, which certainly cannot be construed as useless.
I have noticed that, in general, your posts here are negative. I will ask (and I may have asked this before) what are your ideas to generate alternate power? Do you have any? Do you ever see any positive in new and leading edge power generation technology?
His technology has nothing to do with my comment and I don't know why you think it does. The comment was aimed at your post, not his. Moderator cut: edit
Last edited by riveree; 08-06-2008 at 11:58 PM. Reason: point made...let's not get personal
I am still trying to figure out why this was cut by a mod. There was nothing personal about the statement. In fact, it was simply an echo from the previous post, which did not get cut. If a mod could take the time to explain this I would appreciate it.
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